Yes, via “publishing sources familiar with the contents” of McGinniss’ book comes the out-of-nowhere story that back in 1987, Palin had a brief fling with none other than…former NBA sharpshooter Glen Rice:

Sarah hooked up with the NBA great, then a 6-foot-8 junior at the University of Michigan when he was playing in a college basketball tournament in Alaska in 1987, the book says. At the time, Sarah, just out of college, was working as a sports reporter for the Anchorage TV station KTUU.

A publishing source told The ENQUIRER that McGinniss claims Sarah had a ‘fetish’ for black men at the time and he quotes a friend as saying Sarah had ‘hauled (Rice’s) ass down.”

Additionally, the report says that in his book, McGinniss gets confirmation from Rice that this happened. The Enquirer goes on to try to make the whole thing sound scandalous by saying that this took place “less than a year before [Palin] eloped with her husband Todd,” and that “Todd was very much in the picture at the time.” Oh, and also by referring to the pairing as “a steamy interracial hookup.”

Of course, “in the picture” doesn’t equal “married” (though apparently the book also talks of an extramarital affair), so to us, the most scandalous thing about this is allegedly hooking up with someone you could be reporting on. Mostly, though, we’re still a little taken aback by this whole thing. We don’t even really care about it so much as we’re thinking…Glen Rice? We’ve hardly heard about that guy at all in recent years. We’ve probably heard more about his son, who plays for Georgia Tech. And now…this. For us, it’s a tough anecdote for anything else in McGinniss’ book to top.